The party found themselves in the town of Fallcrest, having travelled there as caravan guards from Arabel in Cormyr. After a week in the town, they came to the conclusion that they needed a source of income to pay their accommodation bills.
Asking around, they were directed to Moonstone Keep, home of the local noble, Lord Warden Faren Markelhay. Outside the main guardhouse, they found the town noticeboard, used for the advertisement of things such as town meetings, group gatherings, etc., and also offers of work. On the board, they found a couple of notices that attracted their attention.
Firstly there was a job offer from Lord Warden Markelhay himself, advertising a bounty on kobold raiders who had been attacking travellers between Fallcrest and the town of Winterhaven, some three days travel to the west. The group asked at the keep, and were introduced to Lord Warden Markelhay's seneschal, Luther Gethsemane. He explained that a bounty of 10gp was being offered for each pair of kobold ears, with a 100gp bounty offered for the bone mask reported to be worn by the kobold's leader. The group gladly accepted the commission, and were given directions to the kobold's suspected base of operations, a ruined and deserted manor house some fifteen miles from town.
Secondly, there was a notice from the town's armourer and weapon smith, a dwarf by the name of Teldorthan “Goldcap” Ironhews, asking for a band of bold adventurers to assist him in recovering some stolen goods. As there were no bold adventurers in the region, the party decided to speak to him themselves. Presenting themselves at Teldorthan's forge, he informed them that a valuable cargo of green dragon hides had been stolen by the kobold raiders. As he had been intending to use the hides to make an item for Lord Warden Markelhay himself, he was very keen on getting them back, and was offering a 200gp reward for their return.
The party were happy that they could combine the two jobs, and quickly prepared for the journey. Expecting to be loaded down with huge sums of gold and magic items, they purchased a cart and carthorse, who they immediately named Carter.
They travelled down the road, but by late afternoon had encountered no traffic. About a mile to the south of the road they spied the ruins they were looking for, in the fringes of a small wood. Carefully approaching, they saw that the manor house was in a very poor condition. Half of the roof was gone, and walls had collapsed. The manor's grounds were overgrown, and ivy and other climbing plants had covered the remaining structure.
Venturing into the ruins, the party found some signs of recent habitation. A path had been cleared through the rubble, and following this, they found themselves in the remains of the manor's kitchen. A set of stairs led down to a cellar area.
As they reached the cellars, they were greeted by the sight of a storeroom, smashed crockery and broken boxes pushed towards the walls. Strangely, in the centre of this room was a pit, some 20' by 10', from which a noxious looking green vapour was rising. On the far side of the room stood a kobold, holding a sling. As the kobold shouted a warning, Jia fired a bolt from her crossbow pistol at him, and injured him badly. The kobold fled around a corner, and the party surged into the room. As they did so, two more kobolds, both skirmishers, rushed out from the passage the slinger had fled down. At the same time, two more skirmishers and another slinger joined the fray from a side passage, squeezing through the bars of a portcullis blocking the way.
Bravely pushing forwards, Thorfinn found himself surrounded on three sides by the kobolds, and received a number of wounds, each of which caused him to curse enough to turn the air blue. However, his constant calls of “Hit 'em harder!” bore fruit as Gilee attacked a kobold and having unbalanced him with a brutal strike to the shoulder, pushed him into the pit with her shield. With a wail the kobold fell into the glowing green slime, and disappeared from sight.
“Don't drop them in the pit! We need the ears!” shouted Gilee's companions, and contritely she forced her way forwards to assist Thorfinn.
Meanwhile, Doomgrad rushed at the slinger behind the portcullis, who was surprised and shocked to see the paladin make his way through the bars of the portcullis, despite being as tall as a dwarf, wearing full plate armour and wielding a longsword as tall as he was. However his shock was short-lived, as Doomgrad cut him down with a pair of powerful blows.
Eilonwy and Kaza kept up a concentrated magical assault on the kobolds, though no one was quite sure if Kaza was aiming at the kobolds or the cellar walls. Jia crept up to assist Thorfinn and Gilee, and once Doomgrad joined them, the kobolds were soon dispatched. After a few moments to catch their breath, someone asked the question they were all thinking.
“So how do we get the one in the pit out so we can get his ears?”
1 comment:
Oh. My. God. I sense an alternate reality in which Jia desperately seeks to get it on with goat boy.
The fight scene was a bit hurried. I seem to remember that Kazaa actually did a massive burning hands thing that did a fair bit of damage, and Bakaan had a moment of inspiration when he realised it was better to tell others to hit the Kobolds, rather than doing it himself. Oh well.
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